Anju, April 27, 2012

EX-MILOSEVIC PROSECUTOR SAYS U.N. SHOULD “PUT NORTH KOREA ON TRIAL:” Unfortunately, this would require Security Council approval, so the precise means and moment of failure are completely predictable. This isn’t to say that the effort is unworthy. It would make a great thought experiment:

The situation in North Korea is a clarion call for the Security Council and other U.N. members to show courage in a case of political complexity. There can be few places in the world where the human rights situation is more egregious and yet more overlooked than North Korea.

To me, this “more egregious and yet more overlooked” phenom is one of the most interesting and maddening things about North Korea. The same Human Rights Industry that fetishized Gitmo until January of 2009 pays (at best) token attention to the 150,000 men, women, and kids in North Korean prison camps, or (at worst) builds altars to worship its gods in the name of “constructive engagement” — the same policy that was rightfully demonized as enabling apartheid in the case of South Africa. You don’t have to be a scholar of world politics to smell hypocrisy and move your switch to the “ignore” position when the Human Rights Industry speaks thereafter. The sad consequence is that people also ignore a lot of other things they shouldn’t.

PLAN B WATCH: South Korea is asking the U.N. to blacklist North Korean banks:

Seoul has submitted the list of institutions including Aprok Development Bank and Haesung Trading, suspected of involvement in arms trading and other illegal activities, Dong-A Ilbo newspaper said.

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CONGRATULATIONS TO “Open Radio for North Korea, North Korea Reform Radio, Free North Korea Radio and Radio Free Chosun,” which “have today joined together to form a new association of broadcasters whose purpose is to prompt change in North Korea.”

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AP WATCH: While I don’t dispute that the DMZ has become a tourist attraction, I think the AP’s correspondent makes a grave mistake by suggesting that it is only a tourist attraction. Anyone who doubts that the so-called Demilitarized Zone is an intermittently active front line must have slept through most of 2010. I fear it will be active again soon enough.

3 comments

yeah, the story about the imitation missiles are all over the place. love this quote:

“I believe that these missiles are not only mock-ups, but they are very unlikely to be actual mock-ups of any missiles in design,” he said. “Fabricating a missile like the KN-08 would require a gigantic indigenous technical effort. … The only way North Korea could develop such a missile with its pitiful economy would be if someone gave it to them.”

here’s a link that you can see a visual of what they’re talking about:

The documents at the must-read link seem to show the North Koreans itching for war and the Chinese egging them on. The Soviets didn’t want war, but didn’t think they could stop it. So why didn’t Kim Il-Sung start Korean War II? Not because of a baloney apology that was immediately repudiated. Did he really think the war would be dangerous? Did the Soviets exert some pressure not documented here? What changed his mind?

It’s too bad Brezhnev wasn’t as cautious about Afghanistan as he was about Korea.

If you read and believe Red Star Rogue, then the aggressiveness of Kim falls into an interesting context.

The book argues that the Soviet Union, on March 7, 1968 launched a nuclear missile attack on Pearl Harbor, using the profile of a Chinese Golf submarine. The submarine had been taken over by KGB sailors acting on direct orders of Suslov and Andopov. The missile exploded during launch (because McNamara had supplied Gorshkov of the Soviet Navy with a failsafe device unknown to the KGB.) This submarine was raised by the Hughes Glomar Explorer, with evidence that it had been surfaced in a launch mode when it sank.

Given Kim as a puppet of red China, the Little Red Book riots in China, Hong Kong and Macau, and the generally rebarbative behavior of the Chinese government, the Soviet Union’s oplan would’ve likely resulted in the US nuking Beijing and Pyongyang, and leaving the “Russians” in strategic control of Manchuria, Korea and Japan.

That means that rabid behavior, even by chihuahuas of the DPRK, can have bad consequences for their Chinese owners when the evil next door neighbor sees an opening..